Rob Zombie recently revealed that Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark herself will be appearing in his big-screen adaptation of The Munsters… but now, she has explained that it’s not exactly what you’d expect from this collaboration between the two horror icons.
“Here, I am playing this character that’s so so different from what I normally do,” Cassandra Peterson (Elvira’s real name) tells Variety. “I’m playing a super straight character.”
Gone is the low-cut, slinky dress, big black bouffant hairdo, and over-the-top makeup, instead, in this official set photo, Peterson dons a short red wig and a more demure two-piece pink suit for her role as Barbara Carr, “the #1 real estate agent in all of Mockingbird Heights.”
“Barbara is a normal woman,” adds Peterson. “It was exciting and terrifying, but it was really cool.”
Since Peterson made her debut on Movie Macabre in 1981, the actress became all but synonymous with her horror host alter ego. However, she’s also made appearances outside of her Elvira drag for bit parts in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, The Sting II, as well as Allan Quartermain and The Lost City Of Gold.
Peterson went on to praise Sheri Moon Zombie as Lilly Munster. “[She] is freaking adorable,” she says. Addressing the perpetual social media backlash criticizing Rob Zombie for casting his wife in films, Peterson simply says it’s “because she’s freaking good.”
It’s going to be interesting to see what Zombie brings to the film. Known primarily for gruesome, post-grindhouse horror, The Munsters is shaping up to be something a little cuter and sillier in the vein of 1995’s sly nostalgia satire The Brady Bunch Movie... and it’s said to be rated PG. Casting the Mistress Of The Dark in a straight role as a real estate agent certainly suggests something a little more subversive at hand.
The Munsters is slated to be released to theaters and Peacock later this year.